Let’s discuss a situation that’s somewhat common among employers. You have an employee, Sharon, who has used all of her allowed paid time off (vacation, personal, sick, etc.) for the year. Sharon’s mother falls ill with a serious medical condition and Sharon needs to take additional time off work to help care for her mother, but she doesn’t have any paid time off available. Sharon’s coworker, Kim, has a lot of accrued paid time off with no vacation plans so she asks you if she can donate some of her available paid time off balance to Sharon to be able to use during her absence so that Sharon doesn’t have to take unpaid time off work to care for her mother. Can you allow Kim to donate her paid time off to Sharon?

Beginning on January 1, 2018 there are a number of new employment laws going into effect in California that employers should be aware of. Read below for details regarding five of these new laws. Continue reading →

Employers with 50 or more employees must offer eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). But what about employers with less than 50 employees? Are they required to provide a leave of absence to an employee with an illness or injury or to an employee who has a family member with a serious illness or injury? Quite possibly. There are a number of federal and state laws which may require an employer to provide a leave of absence, even when the employer is not covered by FMLA. Continue reading →

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12 month period where their job is guaranteed upon their return. The law also requires that any group health insurance benefits the employee participates in are continued for the duration of the FMLA leave as if the employee was still working full time.

Covered Employers

FMLA only applies to companies with 50 or more employees during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the previous or current calendar year. This may include members of controlled groups and joint employers if the total employee count is 50 or more. In addition, all public agencies (including local, state and federal government agencies) as well as public and private elementary or secondary schools are covered employers regardless of the number of employees.

Effective July 1, 2017, large employers in Georgia who offer sick leave to their employees must allow their employees to use sick time to care for an immediate family member.

The new law applies to employers with 25 or more employees. These large employers who currently offer employees paid sick leave (or begin to do so in the future) must allow employees who work at least 30 hours per week to use up to 5 days of paid sick leave per year for the care of an immediate family member. Continue reading →

On July 29, 2016 Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed the Child Bereavement Leave Act which became effective immediately.

The Act requires employers with 50 or more employees who are subject to the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to provide eligible employees with up to 10 days of unpaid time off following the death of the employee’s child. Employees become eligible for the leave based on the eligibility requirements of the FMLA – that is after the employee has worked at least 12 months for the employer and has worked at least 1,250 in the preceding 12 month period.

One of our full-time employees has asked to take Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule. What does this mean, and how does it affect our employee’s health coverage?